At midnight the best argument against turning on the bedside lamp is usually asleep three feet from the switch. MEMSLUX has a wonderfully literal solution for the person on the other side of the bed. Its AwesomePré LITE EDITION PLUS puts a transparent book light directly on the page. The detective gets enough light to inspect the footprints. Your spouse gets to keep sleeping through the investigation.
Pick it up off the book and it looks like somebody took the middle out of a small tablet. There is a slim dark frame, a thicker bar along one short edge and a clear panel you can see right through. Set it over a printed page and the missing middle suddenly makes sense. Every letter inside the frame belongs to the book underneath. Lift the light and the story stays behind.
How the page lights up
MEMSLUX calls the transparent part its Magic Lighting Plate. The LEDs feed light into the plate, which directs it down toward the paper. Light reflected from that paper brings the print into view through the plate. Put the light-emitting face toward the book. The difference is easiest to see on an open spread, where one page glows inside the frame and the facing page sits in the ordinary shadows of the room.
Think about where a clip-on lamp has to sit to accomplish the same job. Its little neck reaches up and out, your hand crosses its beam, and a deep paperback gutter can become the darkest place in the county. Here the light travels with the panel. Tilt the book toward you on a pillow and the angle between the page and its light stays much the same. There is no neck to bend back into position after you roll onto your side.
The frame also gives the light a boundary. Anyone who has tried reading on a plane under an overhead spotlight knows the peculiar intimacy of illuminating a stranger’s sandwich. A light lying on a paperback has a much smaller assignment. Some light will still reflect off the paper into the room, of course. That reflection is how you can see what the author has done to your favorite character.
Which books fit under the Plus?
The Plus adds 35 millimeters of height over the regular Lite Edition. That buys room for more lines beneath the clear panel. It makes sense to think in terms of the printed column when choosing a size. A novel can have wide outside margins and a fairly narrow column of type. Another book with the same trim size might run its text almost all the way to the edge.
- Open the book you actually read at night. Look at the width of a full line and how close the inside margin sits to the binding.
- Check the pages near the beginning as well as the middle. A stiff new paperback can form a surprisingly steep ramp near the spine.
- If you read illustrated books, look at a typical spread. A picture that crosses the gutter asks more of a single-page light than a column of prose does.
There is a small choreography to the page turn. Finish the left page, shift the panel to the right, then lift it while you turn the leaf. If you can already do that with a mug of tea balanced on one knee, congratulations on your promising future in the circus. The rest of us might want the mug on the nightstand.
| Reading material | What to expect from the panel |
|---|---|
| Single-column novel | Place the clear area over the printed column and shift across at the end of the page. |
| Wide magazine | Turn or slide the panel to follow columns wider than its window. |
| Illustrated two-page spread | Move across the artwork in sections to see details on both sides. |
Warm light, cool light and the charging port
The seller shows the Plus with both warm and cool illumination. The warm version gives cream paper an amber cast that looks right at home on a bedside table. The cool version leaves a white page looking closer to the way it does under a desk light. Pay attention to the LED option when ordering. MEMSLUX has sold several versions of the AwesomePré, and a photograph of two different tones side by side can be easy to misread.
The Lite Edition family uses a button for brightness and a USB-C connection for charging. Both live up in the thick end of the frame, leaving the rest of the panel slim enough to rest over the print. A physical control is especially welcome here. Nobody wants to unlock a phone, get distracted by a group chat and discover twenty minutes later that the detective is still standing over those footprints.
The clear surface deserves some attention, too. MEMSLUX shows a replaceable glossy acrylic cover plate to help protect the reading surface from everyday scuffs. Touch a dark phone screen after eating popcorn and you already know what fingers can do to a pristine window. Holding the thicker end while switching pages keeps most of that evidence out of the middle of the next paragraph.
Who will actually reach for a flat book light?
It makes a particularly sweet gift for the reader whose nightstand already has a leaning tower of physical books. They get to keep the paper, the penciled marginalia and the old receipt masquerading as a bookmark. There is no library to move onto a new device. A borrowed paperback works on precisely the same terms as a first edition, although one of those is considerably less stressful to balance on a duvet.
Someone who likes to underline passages may have a different experience. The same clear plate that lets you see the line sits directly between the pencil and the page. You have to lift it to make your mark. A bed reader working through a mystery might barely notice the extra movement. A student annotating every third sentence might prefer to keep the desk lamp for homework and save this one for the train home.
- The AwesomePré LITE EDITION PLUS is a portable transparent panel light for printed books.
- One-sided illumination directs light onto the paper beneath the clear window.
- The Plus panel is 35 mm taller than the regular Lite Edition.
- A USB-C charging port sits in the thicker end of the frame.
- The light moves from page to page with the reader.
The MEMSLUX Official Store lists the AwesomePré LITE EDITION PLUS at $69. If you are picking one out for somebody else, borrow a favorite paperback for a minute and check what kind of page they will be lighting. You can return the book with their bookmark exactly where you found it. That last feature is entirely up to you.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Keeps the brightest area close to the printed text. | Lights one section of an open spread at a time. |
| Clear window leaves the original print visible. | The panel must be lifted to write on the page. |
| Taller Plus size accommodates more lines. | Wide layouts can still require repositioning. |
| Rechargeable through USB-C. | Another item to remember to charge before a trip. |
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This Transparent Book Light Illuminates the Page Underneath It
At a glance
Product snapshot
- Listed price
- $69.00Prices and availability can change. Check the seller for current details.
- Where to find it
- MEMSLUX Official Store
- Category
- Books
